Where Are The Jobs?

Three pieces of data caught my attention this week showing the continued weakness in the employment markets.  As the Dow closed in on 10,000 (50% off its March lows, but still 40% off its 2007 highs)  earlier this week, I continued to wonder how the economy could have a robust recovery when the employment (and therefore the consumer) picture remained so weak.  This is what many refer to as the disconnect between Wall Street and Main Street. 

Here were the three data points:

• Job seekers exceed available jobs by ratio of 6:1, according to story in NY Times last weekend. 

• Digging into the September jobs report, where 263,000 jobs were lost and the unemployment rate ticked up to 9.8% on its way to 10%, found some disconcerting data on the education front:

"Even after receiving billions of dollars of stimulus funds, state governments lost 10,000 jobs -- all in education -- and the trend may get worse in coming months."

• The picture is even bleaker for teens as unemployment among teenagers hit record levels in September too as this Wall Street Journal opinion piece noted:

"The September teen unemployment rate hit 25.9%, the highest rate since World War II and up from 23.8% in July. Some 330,000 teen jobs have vanished in two months. Hardest hit of all: black male teens, whose unemployment rate shot up to a catastrophic 50.4%. It was merely a terrible 39.2% in July."

Comments

[Ms. C. Cryn Johannsen]

I'm glad you asked this question. The analysts always claim that jobs are the last to be recovered in a recession, but I still find these numbers to be troubling. That's exactly why I'm the Promotional Writer and Dir. of Marketing for Robert Applebaum's Forgive Student Loan Debt Movement. There are so many professionals who are hard-working, educated, etc. and they cannot for the life of them find work that provides them with a decent wage. As I've been saying for a long time, I think it's high time we stopped worshiping the DOW and Wall St. Who's really benefiting from this market rebound? People on "Main St.?" Hardly.

-Cryn Johannsen

Promotional Writer and Dir. of Marketing, Robert Applebaum's Forgive Student Loan Debt Movement

[Ms. C. Cryn Johannsen]

Hi there, again,

I have a list of 1200+ connections on my professional Facebook page, and I've let them know about your fantastic blog - so you're aware, they're reposting this particular post.

Thanks again for your hard work!

-Cryn